bid to find human health and industrial benefits from the waters around the Island.

San Diego-based Diversa Corp. has signed a three-year bio-prospecting agreement with the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

Under the agreement, Diversa and BBSR scientists will collect samples from Bermuda's unique and diverse marine habitats which will then be studied in the hope of finding useful compounds.

BBSR director Tony Knap said: "We are clearly delighted to work with Diversa on this innovative approach to finding human health and industrial benefits from the ocean.

"Over the years BBSR has formed successful alliances with a variety of scientific institutions and corporations to take advantage of Bermuda's ideal location for marine research.'' Diversa president Jay Short added: "Over the next three years, scientists at BBSR and Diversa will be able to make a significant contribution to the understanding of the microbial diversity living in Bermuda's marine habitats.'' The programme will initially focus on finding living molecules from the bacteria which lives alongside simple marine animals like sponges and sea squirts.

Diversa has technology which allows it to access the genetic material of these organisms and then screen and identify the important living compounds and molecules they contain.

There will be little damage done to the environment in the process of collecting the samples, added Dr. Short.

"In contrast to traditional approaches, Diversa's recombinant discovery programme requires only small samples and can thus perform this research without impacting Bermuda's delicate ecosystems.'' These habitats include the shallow and deep waters of the Sargasso Sea, the ocean floor and the inshore environments of the world's northernmost coral reefs.

"The range of environments to which BBSR scientists have access is remarkable, and from a microbial perspective, is largely unexplored,'' said Diversa's senior director of Molecular Diversity Eric Mathur.

"It will be advantageous to collect samples from ocean depths that range from surface to abyssal waters, as well as from the varied reef environments, then isolate microbial nucleic acids almost immediately at the BBSR labs,'' he said.

BBSR molecular biologist Hank Trapido-Rosenthal agreed.

"We have unparalleled access to a great variety of microbial populations as well as the scientific infrastructure allowing us to partner effectively with Diversa in analysing these samples,'' Dr. Trapido-Rosenthal said.

"Bermuda is an ideal place to study subtropical flora and fauna.

"Within its 21-square-mile land mass, its 200-square-mile reef platform, the surrounding Sargasso Sea, and nearby ocean depths of over 12,000 feet, are a wide variety of readily accessible habitats and biotic assemblages.'' Tony Knapp